Development Update

[Hamma]

Enrico has posted a development update about various changes in the new test patch. He is also looking for some feedback regarding the recent changes.

Hello All!
I hope by now you have had a chance to see what we are putting together on the test server for our 3.11 publish. We've put together numerous changes on the UI and as of last Saturday, we have started making changes due to the feedback you have given us. Again, thanks for helping us out!
When we put together the first time help pop ups, it didn't completely come out the way we planned. So this week, we're changing it a bit to do what we intended to do and that's to give a new player a quick start into the game that will do the following as easily as I'm stating it now: Go to an Equipment Terminal; Learn how to load a favorite; Instant Action into a battle; How to pull out your weapons and shoot; How not to shoot a "green" player; & where can I learn more about the game. That part is pretty simple but I know that a lot of people will not think it is enough. What we hear from a lot of first time players when they enter the game is: What do I do now? Where do I get weapons? Where do I go to shoot someone? So we're going to address these questions with a quick start and create a reference FAQ that will adddress all of the other questions we feel will come next as they either become easy prey for you veterans or start to see other parts of the game that is unreachable to them at the beginning. The reference FAQ will include an icon that stays on a new player's screen for their beginning ranks to address the most obvious questions (How to: use different weapons, vehicles; How to use the map, join a squad, outfit; What are implants; How to capture bases and towers; How to travel from continent to continent; etc...) If you have some obvious ones that aren't in this list, let us know.
We made some changes to the Switchblade in which you will see on today's playtest - reducing the armor a bit and giving it's own certification which will cost a bit more. I'm already getting some good feedback on this change and some suggestions to change it. For example, put it on the assault buggy cert to make those vehicles more useable and why make them cost so much. I like the idea of putting it on the buggy certs in hopes of seeing the buggies used more but I don't think it will make much difference. Players will more than likely wait for their timer to go down on the switchblade before they used a buggy. We'll need to do more to the buggies to make them viable. Also, the higher cost goes along with what we like to see in the game = Players will have to be very selective on how they choose their path in the game. We like the design of customizing your character and not being a jack of all trades. Last but not least, won't players now be able to jump back and forth between the lightning and the switchblade when the timer is still counting down? Yes, but you can already do that with the same amount of certs.
[on a side topic that we haven't discussed in a while, would you all like the opportunity in this next build to "re-cert" all your certifications?]
In other news, and for those that did not read the entire post by VoidRage, BR 24+ are all getting the ability to choose between wearing your Helmet, the Beret, the Hat, or nothing at all. In addition, you can put on your ear piece microphones and glasses at anytime through a new interface through your character info pane.
I know many of you are waiting for news, so here it goes.... Unfortunately, I don't have any more news to share about the In Free program yet. We will share it as soon as we have it ready for public consumption. I'm sorry I can't share anything else at this time ~ Hang tight.

So nothing new on the freeplay front - hopefully we will be hearing something soon. Check out the full post here.

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